


paying the price.

by romulus_adhara



Series: New Heroes (Ocean’s 11 taeten AU) [3]
Category: NCT (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Crimes & Criminals, Heist AU, Illegal Activities, Jaeil - Freeform, M/M, Sequel, as usual nothing makes sense until the end, but with style, clair de lune and theme for young lovers are to blame for all the tragic angst, doyu are kinda here too, johnmark, now I have to apologize to jaehyun too, ocean's 11 au, once again taeil sorry I love you so much, or are we, taeten - Freeform, this time we not robbing taeil we robbing WITH him, we're back yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23574379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romulus_adhara/pseuds/romulus_adhara
Summary: “I believe I owe you a happy birthday,” he drawls lowly and bows his chin. “Congratulations.”Taeyong doesn’t respond but holds his gaze steady and unyielding. The air is charged with danger and anticipation. Ten closes the door, and the sound vibrates through the room.“Hello,” the man greets him with the same lazy smirk. “Long time no see.”“Quit it,” Ten says coldly, coming closer to him, arms crossed. “What do you want?”“Why,” Taeil chuckles, stroking his cane, “I believe you owe me something, too. And it’s time to pay up.”
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Moon Taeil, Lee Taeyong/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Mark Lee/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Series: New Heroes (Ocean’s 11 taeten AU) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1307999
Comments: 24
Kudos: 68





	paying the price.

**Author's Note:**

> this is a part of the [new heroes series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1307999) and it WILL NOT MAKE SENSE if you haven't read the previous parts, so please be advised and don't spoil it to yourself!
> 
> but hey, happy birthday btn! it's heist time!
> 
> [trailer by exotanvcity on twt](https://twitter.com/exotanvcity/status/1331701557797085184)

_“This better be good.”_

“Wouldn’t be calling you otherwise. Hi, by the way.”

_“We’re way past this polite shit, Ten. But I’m happy you got out.”_

“I have a job.”

_“Sure you do.”_

“We’re hitting Taeil.”

_“...”_

“You’re in?”

_“Why me?”_

“You’re the best in the field.”

_“I’m flattered.”_

”Don’t be. It’s the truth.“

_“Alright. But why hit him?”_

”Reasons.”

_“I’ve missed you explaining things. You’re always so precise and clear.”_

“Look, I have a plan.”

_“You always do.”_

“So?”

_“Fine, I’m bored anyway. But I have a condition.”_

“Spill.”

_“Nobody knows about my history with him.”_

“Why? Is there still something?”

_“No. I’m over it. You know it, you were there.”_

“Yeah, I was. That’s why I’m asking.”

_“Listen, I just don’t want any rumors popping up. I’ll do my job, but the second you try and make even a slight joke about it, I’m out.”_

“I’m sarcastic. Not cruel.”

_“Just making sure. When do we meet?”_

“Mark will send you the tickets. We’re meeting at one of his houses in Vegas.”

_“Fuck, do I hate that place. Haven’t been there since... You know.”_

“Well, that’s where the money’s at, darling.”

_“Yeah. Well, I’ll see you there, then.”_

“Cool. Thanks.”

_“You’ll thank me in my cut. And hey, one more thing. Ten?”_

“Yes?”

_“Thanks. For what you did for me back then. It wouldn’t be as easy without your help.”_

“It was still hard, and I’m kinda paying for it now, but you’re welcome, Jae. I’ll see you in Vegas.”

//

Ten doesn’t think it matters that he regrets his choices. Right now, it doesn’t fucking matter. 

He wipes the blood off his lip and jerks his head with a chuckle. Taeil pokes his cheek with his tongue and chuckles back. 

“Still think I’m the bad guy here?” 

Ten looks up at him, blinking slowly. He really should’ve slept more before this. 

“That’s the point, Taeil,” he drawls, tasting metal on his tongue. “I never thought you were.”

He straightens his back and winces when it protests. Taeil is frowning now, and Ten sighs, feeling the rough stone of the wall with his fingers. He closes his eyes and counts to twelve before opening them. 

“So.” He looks at the bars and sighs. Here we are again. “Are your guys bailing us out or mine?”

Taeil rubs his temples. His suit is fucked up beyond repair, and Ten thinks back to the times he didn’t care for his appearance as much as he does now. Those were the simpler years. Back then, the only time they could potentially stay alone was another mad caper. Tonight, all it took was throwing them into one cell. Shit.

“Nobody from mine knows where I am,” Taeil grits outs. “They think I’m at home sleeping.”

Ten limps to the bars and sighs, looking at the cop’s desk down the corridor. Glances at the clock. Eleven fifty-seven. Almost midnight. 

“Isn’t someone supposed to offer us a phone call?” Taeil sighs in frustration, and Ten rolls his eyes without turning around.

“You don’t get arrested a lot, do you?” He drawls, counting down the minutes as the clock’s hands move. Eleven fifty-eight. 

“I’m not a criminal,” Taeil shoots back. “Not anymore.”

Ten hums without paying much attention to him. This is all getting too long. He’s getting worried.

“Something’s wrong.”

Taeil comes up to him and looks out too.

“Where is everyone?”

Ten smirks bitterly and fixes his bowtie. Stuffy thing, but Taeyong insisted. He counts his teeth with his tongue, ignoring Taeil spreading anxiety everywhere. 

“Answer me, for fuck’s sake,” Taeil snaps, and Ten turns his head slowly to look at him.

“Then ask a normal fucking question,” he says quietly and turns back to the clock. 

There’s silence as Taeil breathes out in frustration and hits the bars with his palm. Ten swallows. Something’s wrong. Something is definitely wrong. 

“Why are you so calm?” Taeil asks finally, and Ten takes a deep breath. “You’re in more trouble than I am. Or are you anxious to get back to jail?”

Eleven fifty-nine. Almost there. He looks at Taeil again and sucks in his cheeks, contemplating what he’s about to say. 

They hear the sound of the door down the corridor opening, and he closes his eyes, resigned. So this is it. Back to the bunks and bars. 

“They’ll take me first,” he says calmly, listening to the footsteps and regretting not saying goodbye. “You’ll probably get out soon enough, but I won’t, so I want you to remember, Taeil.”

The cop is getting closer, the clicking sound of the handcuffs echoing through the precinct. He turns to Taeil and straightens up. 

“I stole so much shit from you,” he murmurs with a chuckle. “And you know why?”

Taeil’s jaw is tense, his fingers shaking as he rubs his lips. There’s a ring on them, and Ten thinks about the little thing that started it all and smiles. 

“Because I know a thing or two about honor.”

Taeil snarls at him, but he doesn’t have time to respond. The officer opens the cell, and Ten looks at him for a verdict. Taeil buries his hands in his hair as the cop tilts his head and smirks. 

“You ready to go in for life, Chittaphon?”

It doesn’t matter that he regrets his choices. It doesn’t. 

But the thing that matters is that he would make the same ones all over again, given a chance. 

//

_two months ago._

For some reason, Jisung has to have polished nails for this caper. 

They’re all in the living room, hiding from the summer heat in the chilling comfort of the AC. 

Taeyong is thrilled to try out his manicure skills, and Ten is content to just lie on the couch and observe. Jisung and Taeyong are on the floor, the kit and appliances thrown around. There are dozens of nail polish bottles. Taeyong’s head is right next to Ten’s, and he watches the sun illuminate his focused face. It’s been four months since they’ve reunited, and yet he still can’t get enough of looking at him. It calms him, soothes in a way. Ten has a lot of demons, yet they seem to be mesmerized by Taeyong just as he is, and they keep silent every time Ten looks into his eyes. Taeyong smiles a little. 

“You’re distracting me,” he murmurs, and Ten chuckles. 

“I’m not doing anything,” he says. “Just watching you.”

Lucas and Jungwoo laugh suddenly from the other side of the room. They’re hunched over the map of the place they’re hitting tomorrow, but something tells him there’s not much of a work going on there. They’ve been strange lately, and Ten isn’t sure it’s his place to ask, but he’s just glad they’re not actually related. 

You get attached to people you risk your life with, and sometimes you realize that they’re more than just a person that can take a bullet for you. Ten knows how it is — he married his partner in crime. 

He looks back at Taeyong, smiling. His face is serious, and his tongue is poking out a bit from the corner of his mouth. He’s crafting something over Jisung’s nails, and Ten has to admit he’s doing a great job. It looks pretty and badass.

“Will you do me next?” Ten asks, already looking over the bottles to choose a color. 

“Sure, baby,” Taeyong says absentmindedly, but then he stops and looks up, his brow arched. “Wait, you meant you, or your nails? Because I’m down for either of that.”

Ten laughs, enjoying the look on Taeyong’s mischievous face. Jisung is actively cringing, and it reminds Ten that no matter how old he’s now, he will always stay a ten-year-old that he taught the craft of picking locks. 

“You’re disgusting,” Jisung mumbles. “You’ve been together for so long, and you’re still in your honeymoon phase.”

Ten smiles softly and brushes his fingers along the line of Taeyong's hair. It's currently pink.

“It's hard not to be in our line of work,” he says quietly. “We don't deal with violence, but you never know when some guard will get lucky and shoot you. I'd rather be gross and whipped than die thinking I didn't say I loved him enough.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely gross.”

He looks up to see Johnny come in from outside with Mark in tow, their faces red from the heat. Ten flinches, imagining the temperature out there. He hates summer. 

It literally has only one upside. 

“Yong, are you set on LA for your birthday?” Mark asks as he plumps down on an armchair, closing his eyes as he enjoys the cooling air. Johnny walks past him and into the dining room, brushing his fingers over Mark’s forehead. 

“Yeah,” Taeyong answers without looking up. “Why?”

Mark hums and opens his eyes. 

“Just thought we could fly out,” he drawls. “Somewhere where it’s not that hot.”

“It’s always hot when you’re in the room,” Johnny remarks, returning with two sodas. 

Ten snorts and throws a pillow at him. 

“That’s so corny.” Jungwoo looks up from the map and flinches. “You really need to work on your flirting technique.”

Johnny gasps at him, and they start bickering as the others watch, and Ten observes them all fondly, thinking about his damn luck. He started off with nothing but a boy who believed in him by his side. 

The nights were cold when he was eighteen, but they were never lonely. Taeyong was always by his side through everything, guiding and supporting, and he thinks he could never do it without his encouraging whispers under the darkness of the night. Every caper, every robbery, every crazy plan — all possible because he lucked out and got Lee Taeyong to love him. He started as a teen runaway with nothing to his name, and now he’s sitting on millions, with a family, and a cool-as-fuck husband. 

Which reminds him. 

“Hey,” he says quietly, and Taeyong looks up at him for a moment before coming back to painting Jisung’s nails. “You wanna marry me?”

Taeyong snorts and looks at him properly now, his eyebrow arched. 

“Gotta say, your first proposal was much more romantic.”

Ten bites his lips and rolls over to bring their faces closer. 

“This one is just a formality,” he muses. “Because someone had to go all out and get a real divorce.”

Taeyong shrugs and kisses him briefly. 

“Taeil would check,” he says. “And he did. So, all in all, I did what you taught me — a smart thing.”

Ten smirks and gets the hair out of Tae’s face, staring at him fondly. Years upon years, and it doesn’t get any weaker. 

“I’m proud of you,” he murmurs. “But I want to call you hubby again. Boyfriend just seems tacky at this point.”

They still wear their rings, and literally nobody refers to them as something apart from married, but he still knows that worse comes to worst, he isn’t someone who can call Taeyong his by law. Well. Law is a pretty tangible thing to respect in their areas of life, but fuck it if he just wants to sign another piece of paper from the city hall.

“We can get you a certificate,” Mark calls out. “None of your papers are real, anyway.”

“But I wanna get married,” Ten pouts. “And have a big fancy wedding. Do you remember the last time? We got a certificate and went to KFC. Not that romantic.”

Johnny snorts, remembering that day. They were all so young and reckless, desperate to have a break from babysitting, so they dropped the kids off at the entertainment hall and went off to get Ten and Taeyong married. All in all, it was the happiest day of Ten’s life. 

“I mean...” Taeyong bites his lip with a shy smile. “I want it, too. Some overpriced pompous shit that everybody will cringe about.”

Ten breaks out in the biggest smile and kisses him loudly on the forehead, excited. 

“Then we’re having a wedding!” He announces as he stands up, filled to the brim with happiness. “Gonna invite the whole gang and everything. I heard the Kims are bored as fuck.”

“They always are,” Johnny notes with a smirk. “But you’re right.”

“So what?” Mark blinks sleepily. “When do you want to do it?”

Ten contemplates throwing the biggest party for Taeyong’s birthday and their wedding at the same time, but that would mean stealing half of Tae’s spotlight, and he cannot do that. Besides, they’re rich enough to afford two grotesque parties. 

“Sometimes after my birthday,” Taeyong echoes Ten’s thoughts. “We can celebrate all together, and invite the others to the wedding.”

The others. Their ragtag team of criminals, all scattered around the world. They parted ways after the caper went down, and Ten hasn't seen any of them who isn’t immediate family since the heist on Taeil began. 

Aside from Jaehyun, who visited him in prison, thanking him again for a thing Ten doesn’t think he deserves gratitude for. Jaehyun’s somewhere in Canada now, if Ten’s not mistaken, cooking up a new security system for some rich trust-fund baby that hit a gold mine with buying the fucking TikTok stocks, out of all things.

It’s not like they weren’t thankful to Ten for organizing the caper that guaranteed all of them beds of roses that they could sleep in well after retirement, if they’re smart about it. No, they were, and Ten keeps in touch with every single one, but visiting would mean putting a target on all of their backs. It’s bad enough that four people from the team hang out together, one or two more would be too risky.

In their line of work, you only see people you pull heists with when the whole ordeal is going down, and after that, only when you have another case together. Otherwise, where’s the thrill of it all?

But they can bend the rules for once, can’t they? Just once, for the wedding, in a safe location, far out of Taeil’s reach. Ten nods to himself and taps his temple. Nothing can go wrong.

//

They all agree instantly. Ten figured it’d be hard to reach at least Jaehyun, but the guy picked up on the second call, something loud and dubiously safe going on in the background. When Ten asked if he wants to visit, he agreed instantly and hung up before Ten caught the end of the phrase that started along the lines of, _I’ll hide out at yours too, cause this bitch’ll—_

The Kims arrive first with their respective boyfriends in tow, and while Taehyung and Jeongguk seem to be taken with each other to a point it would be disgusting if Ten wasn’t the same with Taeyong, Yoongi and Jimin burst in yelling obscenities at each other.

“And while _we’re fucking at it_ ,” Jimin seethes, pointing a finger at a fuming Yoongi, “I _hate_ your smoking, but I tolerate it, and now you’re telling me I should quit _my_ habits because what, the glue gun makes you sick?! Hello, Taeyong, love, I missed you!”

His focus shifts instantly as he gifts Taeyong with a sunny smile. Yoongi shakes Ten’s hand with the most pained expression Ten’s ever seen on him, even if he tries to cover it up with a smile. Ten glances between him and Jimin and just gets an eye-roll in return.

Jimin finishes greeting everyone and snaps back at Yoongi with his eyes squinted.

“Have anything to say in your defense?”

“You’re annoying,” Yoongi states simply, smacking his lips. “I never said you should quit, I just asked you to move to another _room_.”

“ _I was making that shit for you, you imbecile_ ,” Jimin screeches, grabbing his duffel and storming past Yoongi to their assigned room on the second floor.

They stand in silence, listening to his stomping steps while Yoongi slowly reaches the boiling point.

“Are you okay?” Mark asks carefully.

Yoongi blinks at him in surprise and grins. “Ah, yeah, don’t worry. We just do this sometimes to let off steam. Jimin read it in some journal.”

A door slams somewhere upstairs, and Yoongi clears his throat.

“Fuck you!” 

Crack, and— “ _Fuck me yourself, you coward!_ ”

“I’ll see you at dinner,” Yoongi throws over his shoulder as he hurries to run upstairs.

Taeyong and Johnny burst out laughing, while Ten just rolls his eyes and ticks a box on his list. Four guests are here, three left. The decorations are set up, the food is ordered, the clothes are ready. Everything is going perfectly.

“We’re on schedule?” Taeyong asks, sneaking his arms around Ten’s stomach from behind and putting his chin on Ten’s shoulder to peer in.

“Yep.” He turns and leaves a wet kiss on Taeyong’s cheek. Yong squeals and wipes it on Ten’s shoulder.

Just like the old times.

//

Jaehyun is blond.

“I’m hiding from the law,” he explains calmly when Ten gapes at his hair.

“You always do that,” Ten counters, arching an eyebrow. “Never saw you take such drastic measures before. You look like a chicken.”

Jaehyun narrows his eyes dangerously. “Keep that up, and you’re waking up with bleach on the least favorable places.”

Taeyong enters the room with his usual flair and falls into Jaehyun’s embrace, chuckling at his remark. 

“I’m curious to see that, not gonna lie.”

Before Ten can battle for the rights of what he supposes is his pubic hair, the last guests arrive right behind Jaehyun, Namjoon sporting his usual round glasses and a tired look. His skin looks sickly. Seokjin pats his shoulder compassionately and rubs his back.

“Motion sickness,” he explains with a sigh. “We just got back from a Honolulu cruise.”

Ten flinches in sympathy. “That must’ve been a fun week.”

“ _Two_ weeks,” Namjoon groans, waving at Ten. “Where’s our room? I’m gonna pass out.”

Taeyong motions for them to follow him, and they leave. Jaehyun stays where he is, barreling Ten with a _look_. Oh, so they’re going to have that talk. He sighs and leads Jaehyun out onto the patio, sliding the glass door firmly behind them and pulling out a cigarette. Jaehyun slides his sunglasses on as he eyes Ten with distaste.

“How do you smoke in this heat?”

Ten shrugs as he lights up. “Habit. And don’t try to change the topic.”

Jaehyun swallows and looks down at his hands, an unusual thing for him, always so sure of himself, calm, and collected. He sniffs as he plays with a silver ring on his middle finger. Ten tries not to focus too much on the familiar design but fails. So he’s still wearing it.

“I visited my apartment in West Fargo when I got back from Canada and before I came here,” Jaehyun starts quietly, clearing his throat. “Had a few missed calls on the answering machine.”

“Any of them from him?” Ten asks the most obvious one, head tilted as he watches Jaehyun’s eyelashes flicker behind the sunglasses.

“All of them.” Jaehyun clears his throat again. He’s uncomfortable and rattled. Ten wants to punch Taeil for what must be the thousandth time in his relatively short life. “I think he knows.”

Ten’s eyebrows fly up. “He called you to inform you of that?”

“I’m guessing he didn’t have your number.” Jaehyun’s shoulder jerks.

“He wasn’t supposed to have yours, either,” Ten reminds him grimly. “I told you what to do. Changing your contacts was on the list.”

“Yeah, well, maybe some part of me hoped he would call for something else other than to tell me he knows me and my buddies robbed his casino,” Jaehyun snaps, meeting Ten’s eyes sharply.

The tinted glasses hide his expression, but Ten still sees it clearly.

“You’re not scared he’ll come for us,” he murmurs. “You’re upset he didn’t need anything else.”

Jaehyun shakes his head and scoffs, dropping his eyes back to the ring. “I just…”

He cuts off, throwing his hands up and burying them in his fair hair, stretching his back and groaning. Ten feels bad for him, he really does, but he also warned Jaehyun of the consequences of leaving any ties to Taeil when he made his decision to leave it all behind. Fuck, he was sure Jaehyun listened to him. Why else would he agree to hit the bitch?

“It doesn’t get easier,” Jaehyun whispers, voice wavering. “It’s been years, and I know why I did it, I _remember_ , but you promised me it would get easier with time.”

“I didn’t,” Ten says quietly, sucking on his cigarette. “I just said that it might. The only thing I guaranteed was that you’d get used to it.”

“Did you get used to being without Taeyong?”

“Not for a second.” Ten gets tired of his cigarette and puts it out a little stronger than is needed. “But I always knew I was coming back to him and the separation was a fake. And our situations are drastically different, Jae, don’t forget.”

“Yeah,” Jaehyun scoffs. “Your boyfriend isn’t a toxic asshole incapable of love.”

Ten watches his wet eyes fix on the horizon as he remembers the first time Jaehyun told him who exactly he fell in love with. People hated him, mostly out of ignorance, but Jaehyun never cared. The others never knew who the man Jaehyun loved really was. His sexuality and habits created a persona around him that was so false it pleased Jaehyun greatly to know who he truly is.

_They think love is all about sex, so they think if he’s ace, he’s incapable of it. But you know what, Ten? Out of all people I’ve ever known, nobody has ever loved me as much as he does._

Already back then, Ten knew how it would end. Not because he thought people were right or Jaehyun wasn’t enough to make someone as conniving turn good. No. He knew how it would end because he knew exactly who that man was and still is, and to this day, he curses himself for allowing Jaehyun to get lost in the illusion and staying away. When he finally stepped in, it was to pick up the pieces and cover up the trail. The thing Ten does best.

“Try to get it out of your mind,” he advises dumbly. “We have a party tomorrow, but nobody says we can’t have a drink today, eh? Let’s go get wasted and forget all about that asshole.”

“If only it was that easy,” Jaehyun whispers with a sniff but collects himself quickly.

In a wink of the eye, he’s back to being his usual cool and uncaring self. They leave the balcony, and while Ten knows it’s impossible, he hopes that all the memories of Moon Taeil stay laying in ashes right beside his half-smoked cigarette.

//

The delivery guy doesn’t budge until Taeyong gives up trying to sign for the package and gets Ten from upstairs. 

“Someone must’ve paid him well to be this fucking diligent,” he complains as they walk down the stairs.

They exchange a grim look. Over their lives, they’ve collected quite a list of people who would want Ten to receive a few bombs in the mail. Taeyong grabs a metal detector from the living room as they move for the entrance. Just in case.

Turns out, he doesn’t need it. A super important delivery turns out to be a rectangular envelope without any markings. Ten signs for it, humming when he sees his least known alias in the recipient field. A limited number of people know that one, and most of them are currently inside the house, exchanging news and chomping on baked goods that have recently become Jaemin’s passion. More so, it has his nickname scribbled under the address, the nickname that only the most trusted and vetted criminals know. 

_Calaïs._

“Be careful,” Taeyong murmurs when they close the door behind the delivery guy.

Ten nods absentmindedly as he inspects the envelope from all sides, fingers fleeting over the paper, testing for something smudged. He unfolds his knife and cuts neatly through the upper side. Then, slowly sniffs the insides and shrugs, not detecting any poison. 

Taeyong watches him carefully pull out a postcard and a note from the envelope.

“ _A wedding gift,_ ” Ten reads out the note and meets Taeyong’s eyes.

Everybody who knew about the vows renewal is literally with them right now, and would most certainly deliver their gifts personally and not through the mail. Ten swallows and looks at the postcard.

From the glossy page, a picturesque landscape of Las Vegas shines at them in all its glory. The outlines of the _Limitless_ casino mockingly glare from the background. Taeyong grips his elbows to keep his hands from shaking.

Ten flips the postcard to see a small machine-typed inscription on the back. There, neatly along the templated lines —

_call me ;)_

Nothing else apart from the standard information about the postcard distribution. This one isn’t even unusual. Taeyong’s seen it thousands of times while staying in Vegas for that nightmare year.

They stay motionless, and with every breath, the writing seems to get darker and more ominous. Ten clears his throat and moves for the patio, Taeyong on his trails. When there, Ten puts his lighter to the edge of the envelope, quickly disposing of it and discarding the ashes into the ashtray. Then he takes another look at the postcard and burns it too. Taeyong watches the paper blacken and dissipate, the ink taking its sweet time to melt.

When it’s done, Ten draws Taeyong closer, holding him and burying his face in Taeyong’s shoulder. Taeyong rubs his back soothingly, thinking about sharp cat-like eyes and a shit-eating grin. There’s only one person who could send it.

“Well.” Ten sighs and pulls away, looking over the horizon. Taeyong brushes his hand over his hair, feeling the gears in that brilliant mind of his turn. “I guess I better call him.”

//

“If Taeyong pouts _once_ today, it’s all over for us bitches,” Mark whispers under his breath as they set up the last of the decorations, waiting for Taeyong and Ten to emerge from their room and see a totally-planned-surprise-party for Taeyong.

The living room has been transformed to look like an explosion of colors and glitter, and while Johnny finds the whole thing a little nauseating, that’s what Yongie likes, and so that’s what Yongie gets. Ten didn’t explicitly state that, but it’s clear as day to anyone who knows him that if literally anything upsets his boyfriend today, they’re all dead meat. Ten already has been weird lately, having that look about him that he always sports when they’re planning a heist. Only they’re on vacation right now, and yes, Ten planned Taeyong’s birthday party with the same passion he does jobs, but it still gave Johnny chills. He keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, every second ticking away until the bomb goes off.

He comforts Mark and kisses him on the forehead, enjoying the shy smile that it emits, and releases the last of the balloons to go up and float under the ceiling. Everything's ready, and they only need the man of the hour to emerge from his slumber and greet his peasants for the day. The kids left the house early after ambushing Taeyong with hugs and birthday wishes and scattering to do a minor casing job for their next term project in the school of little criminals, headmaster Mark Lee, trademarked 2008. 

When Taeyong and Ten finally grace them with their presence, Jaehyun has already bitten into the cake, and Hoseok and Namjoon are heatedly discussing how appropriate it would be to rob something as a birthday activity to engage in. Taeyong looks radiant and shining, and Johnny watches Mark’s wide eyes as he drinks in this version of Taeyong after having to look at the mask he’s been sporting while casing Taeil. The whole thing was hard on everyone involved, apart from maybe Taeil himself, and Johnny doesn’t have it in himself anymore to still feel pissed about them hiding it from him. 

Mark broke down once, spilling everything that’s happened while he had to pretend before Taeil, and how many times he picked up the phone to call Johnny and ask him to come back but chickened out, remembering Johnny’s face as he was leaving. Johnny still hates himself for that one, and he also hates that Mark still has to work with Taeil and see him every week, all while pretending he didn’t fund an operation that robbed Taeil of 160 million dollars. If Johnny could, he would snatch Mark away somewhere to France and keep him there, safe and happy, far out of Taeil’s clawing reach.

But it’s not the time to think about that. Today is all about Taeyong and his happiness, and so Johnny grabs his gift and embarks on a very important task of cuddling the shit out of Lee Taeyong and making sure he feels as loved and appreciated as he should be. He will not let himself think about Taeil, or why Ten looks like he’s close to splitting, or why there’s a sinking feeling in his gut that something is about to happen.

Everything will be okay today, and nothing will go wrong.

//

It starts when the clock strikes seven in the evening and Mark is already tipsy enough to disregard his self-consciousness and wrap himself around Johnny like an octopus. 

Nothing seems to happen outright, but suddenly, the entire room falls silent, as if they all feel the shift. Johnny finds Ten’s eyes and raises his eyebrows, not even sure what exactly he’s asking. Ten subtly shakes his head. A somber mood falls over the party, all of them frozen in wait for… for _something_. Johnny can’t explain it, but he’s suddenly relieved the kids aren’t here.

“There’s someone in the driveway,” Jimin says, eyes cast out the window, one of his hands gripping Yoongi’s forearm. “A black car with… with Nevada plates.”

Boom. The other shoe drops. Someone asks if they should bounce.

“It’s too late,” Ten says evenly, hands before himself in a praying motion. “Follow my lead and stay silent.”

A curtain blows inside the room from the open patio door. The setting sun reflects off of the glass and paints the walls with rainbow bunnies. Hoseok puts his glass down on the table with a _clink_. Jimin and Yoongi leave the entrance and tuck themselves into the corner.

Ten stands up from his place on the armchair and walks to the door, his steps echoing dully on the polished floor. He doesn’t wait for a knock or a bell, but simply opens the door. Their visitor is already waiting, two bodyguards on his sides, a new cane propped against his right leg. He doesn’t need it, he’s just pretentious like that.

He looks up and meets Ten’s eyes, a smirk plastered to his sharp face. Slowly, almost lazily, he casts a look into the room, studying the faces of people inside, lips pursed in contemplation. Then, he walks in, waving for the bodyguards to stay outside and brushing past Ten to come to the center of the room and circle around himself, looking into their eyes.

His gaze falters when he notices Jaehyun by the patio door. Jaehyun is leaning against the glass, the sun on his back and partially covering his face. He’s not moving, but his knuckles whiten around his drink. The man halts for a peculiar moment and looks at Taeyong, eyebrow arched.

“I believe I owe you a happy birthday,” he drawls lowly and bows his chin. “Congratulations.”

Taeyong doesn’t respond but holds his gaze steady and unyielding. The air is charged with danger and anticipation. Ten closes the door, and the sound vibrates through the room.

“Hello,” the man greets him with the same lazy smirk. “Long time no see.”

“Quit it,” Ten says coldly, coming closer to him, arms crossed. “What do you want?”

“Why,” Taeil chuckles, stroking his cane, “I believe you owe me something, too. And it’s time to pay up.”

//

“I’ll be honest,” Taeil says when the silence stretches on. “For a hot minute, I did believe it wasn’t you. There was a thing you stole that pointed at someone else, yet it took me barely a week to eliminate every other possibility.”

Johnny watches Ten’s jaw twitch, his face as impassive as he’s ever seen it. Sweat sheens on his forehead, the brain behind it working at full speed. Then, he loosens his collar and shrugs. Taeil watches him like a hawk.

“What do you want, then?”

Taeil arches an eyebrow. “And they say you’re the smartest in the business.”

Ten clicks his tongue and pouts his lips as if he heard something that greatly displeased him. Johnny guesses what he’s doing. Some of the dread inside dissipates when it catches up to his brain — Ten has a plan. And when Ten has a plan, they’re mostly safe.

“If you only needed the money back,” Ten muses, coming closer to the table and picking up his drink again, slowly, methodically, unbothered, “you wouldn’t bother making a trip down to LA. I do admit you were lucky to catch us all in one place, but I know a thing or two about luck, and this was exactly it. You don’t need all the people here. You only needed me, and you knew I was staying at Mark’s.”

He downs his drink in one go and slaps the glass back on the table, licking his lips, thunder in his eyes as they bore into Taeil. Taeil holds it with a steel expression.

“So I will repeat,” Ten utters with a twitch. “What do you want?”

Johnny’s pretty sure it would be a shorter conversation if it was only them in the room. Taeil likes to seem intimidating, and he can’t lose face in front of so many people with a grudge against him.

Reluctantly, Taeil drops his gaze to his cane, studying the dragon headpiece. He stays silent, but nobody moves or says a word, too spooked and hopeful for Ten to resolve the situation in a way that leaves them with their limbs attached. Finally, Taeil licks his lips and looks up, but still doesn’t speak up. They seem to be battling with their gazes, and it takes another fifteen seconds for Ten to sigh and move for the kitchen.

“Let’s talk in private,” he says, leaving Taeil no place for argument and any other choice but to follow him.

He throws another look around the room, his eyes once again lingering on Jaehyun, who’s looking at the floor, and leaves, his back straight and head held high. Pretentious asshole.

A collective sigh of relief goes over the room. Mark inches closer to Johnny and presses their thighs together. Johnny strokes his fingers and thinks about that day on the beach, when Ten said Taeil _knows_. Back then, Ten said he had a plan. And as experience shows, when Ten has a plan, they have a chance.

//

“You can keep the money.”

Ten’s hand doesn’t waver as he pours himself some soda from the fridge. He doesn’t offer Taeil any, only turning to face him and leaning on the kitchen counter. Takes a sip and raises his eyebrows.

“What money?”

Taeil flinches and sits down on a chair, putting his palms on the cane between his knees. 

“Let’s drop the pretense,” he asks politely. If Ten didn’t know any better, he’d think Taeil is nervous. And Ten does know. Taeil doesn’t do nervous. “You can keep the 160 million.”

“On what conditions?” Ten asks, because he’s not an idiot.

 _Clank._ Taeil raps his cane against the tiled floor. Swallows and looks out the window.

“I need your help.”

The silence is only interrupted by the sizzling of Ten’s soda. He washes the taste of whiskey down and savors the sweetness.

“I’m not asking, by the way,” Taeil stresses, tilting his head and looking at Ten. “If you don’t help me, I will make the lives of every single person under this roof miserable, and you will _beg_ me to just accept the money back. And that extends to your kiddies.”

It would be really easy to throw a knife right into his throat, Ten reckons, even bending his elbow to feel the cold steel against his forearm. But it would also be pointless and rather cruel. He finishes the soda and grins sweetly.

“Then I guess I don’t have any other choice, do I?”

//

Johnny stares at him. Blinks. Rubs his neck. Blinks again.

“You’re shitting me,” he breathes out.

Mark’s pacing is unnerving, so he stops him in his tracks and draws him closer, hugging him around the middle and holding him in place. It works to calm down both of them. Mark slumps against him. Johnny feels his heart beating out a staccato.

“We can just give him the money back,” he suggests breathlessly. “I have it, fuck it, I’ll pay for everyone, I don’t care.”

“It’s not just about the money, though, isn’t it?” Taeyong asks from where he’s hugging himself by the window. 

“He threatened us all,” Ten clarifies. “And the kids.”

That settles that effectively. Mark freezes in his arms. Taeyong curses under his breath and kicks the bed. 

“What does he want?” Johnny asks, thinking that this is the shittiest birthday gift Taeyong could ever receive. 

Ten finishes typing something on his phone and sends a message with a telltale whooshing sound. He clicks it close and measures them with a grim look.

“What we do best,” he says, and in the tone of his voice, Johnny already feels how busy they’re about to get. “We gotta steal some shit.”

//

When Ten gathers the people while Taeil is talking to his bodyguards and tells them what’s up, they all respond in the way that goes something like, _‘We’re helping you, so shut up and give us the job’_. Johnny barely holds back a smile at such comradery and picks up his part of the work — tells everyone to get their shit and take separate flights on different dates to gather in one place by the end of the week.

“Where?” Yoongi asks, already searching up the flights.

Johnny watches Ten say something inaudible to Jaehyun out on the patio. Jaehyun shakes his head angrily, but after a few even words from Ten, jerks his shoulder and nods. Johnny swallows.

“We’re going back to Vegas.”

//

Ten gets a sudden flashback as he watches some drunk guy stumble around the corner. He chuckles to himself and dials the number. Last time he used this payphone, he was calling his parole officer and then Taeyong for the first time in years to tell him the plan had been set in motion. 

This time around, his parole officer thinks he’s dead, and Taeyong is waiting for him in the car. Their flight is departing in four hours, and after that, it’s back to drinking in the flashing signs of casinos and feeling the itch in his fingers that always accompanies every caper. Ten breathes out and listens to the rings break off, a low voice responding.

“Hope you’re ready.”

His interlocutor chuckles. Ten hears blues in the background. Someone laughs.

“I’ve been ready for years, darling.”

When the conversation is over, he slams the door after himself and grips the steering wheel, biting his lips so hard the skin breaks. Taeyong wipes off the blood and kisses him.

“Let’s get this shit done.”

//

When Johnny enters the living room, he has to stop and wonder whether he suddenly walked into an alternate dimension of his life six months ago. The room looks exactly like it did when they were just starting to plan the craziest heist in the history of Las Vegas.

Namjoon’s computers are already set up, and across the room and behind the kitchen island, Jimin and Seokjin are flying around making snacks for everyone. The catering service stocked up on food and dishes, but both of them are doing some healthy diet that Yoongi shudders when talking about, so they, apparently, need to make their own food. Mark’s housekeeper left the house fuming about that, and Mark silently added a couple hundreds to her weekly salary.

The projector is blue-screening on the wall, waiting for the files Namjoon prepared to be displayed. They slowly gather in the room, and Johnny feels the whiff of the familiar energy and thrill of signing up for a crazy adventure that Ten cooked up, but the one thing that spoils it all is the presence of someone they were plotting against the last time they were all here.

Taeil hovers around the entrance from the patio, curiously watching them all settle down. Johnny wonders if he’s thinking about the same thing. If he’s wondering that’s how they looked like when they were outlining hitting him. He catches Taeil’s eyes on him and looks away, exposed and vulnerable.

Years of successfully hiding his face and identity from him, all out the window in a single evening. Mark stands next to him, carefully avoiding looking Taeil’s way. Johnny can’t even imagine how it feels for him to realize all this time Taeil _knew._ How many business meetings he held, and how many friendly smiles he shared with Mark, all while knowing he has a cage around him? Johnny finds Mark’s hand and intertwines their fingers.

The air shifts when Ten and Taeyong stand up and move to the projector, motioning for Namjoon to load up the blueprints. Johnny reflects on the last time he saw Ten standing there without his husband and how wrong it looked. It’s right now. He studies the blueprints with a trained eye, already outlining entrance and exit points. He doesn’t know what it is yet, but based on the number of rooms and their layout, some kind of gallery. Familiar. It’s been a long time since he pulled a proper caper on the art world.

“First off, thank you for being here,” Ten starts after clearing his throat. “We’ll get this thing done smooth and easy working together, and everybody in here is interested in getting this over with as soon as possible.”

Taeil twitches his head with a sarcastic glare, and Johnny wants to throw something at him.

“Our target is the 3600 block of Las Vegas Boulevard,” Ten announces, bringing up the satellite picture of a gorgeous high hotel-casino just a few blocks down from Taeil’s establishments. “Or, a hotel-casino named _Empathy_ , owned by Yuta Nakamoto.”

“Not to ask the obvious,” Jeongguk asks with a finger in the air. “But why exactly do you need to rob a casino if you have like a gazillion of them? Is this a dick thing? Sounds like a dick thing.”

Taehyung snickers into his palm, hiding it behind Jeongguk’s legitimately curious form. Taeil’s jaw stands out as he glares at Jeongguk and stomps into the room, stopping next to the screen and swiping the picture to show the blueprints again. 

“I don’t give a shit about the casino,” he growls, gripping his cane. “I need you to rob his museum.”

//

Johnny rubs his lips. 

Should he say something? 

The picture mocks him from the screen.

He should say something.

“Not to be _that_ guy,” Seokjin speaks up, for which Johnny is grateful. “But didn’t we already steal that ring?”

Comedic silence and the sound of Jimin chewing on his celery. He swallows. “Yeah, from you.”

“Indeed,” Taeil grits out, and by his look, it’s obvious what he’d like to do with that piece of celery.

“And now we gotta steal it again?” Yoongi clarifies, tilting his head and stepping a bit in front of his boyfriend.

“We all understand the irony,” Ten butts in, when Taeil starts resembling a bull ready for a fight. “If I knew how it would turn out, I wouldn’t have sold the ring.”

Johnny catches a subtle glance from Taeyong at Taeil and squints his eyes. Something tells him there was another way that goddamn family crest turned up in the _Empathy_ museum. He’ll need to talk to Ten, and talk sincerely, because the last time Johnny got involved in a heist uninformed, Ten ended up in prison.

“Why is it so important?” 

Cold air trickles in from the open patio door, but it’s too warm of an evening for it to be chilly. The iciness isn’t as much called by the temperature, it’s Jaehyun’s voice. This is the first thing he’s said since they arrived. There’s something in the way Taeil looks at him that speaks too loud to be just a grudge at Jaehyun being a part of the crew that robbed him. Johnny’s curious.

“That shouldn’t concern any of you,” Taeil replies as coldly.

“First rule of successful heists,” Jaehyun says, studying his nails. “Know the stakes.”

“I’ll break all of you into pieces if you don’t do this,” Taeil reminds him. “Those are your stakes.”

“You already did that to me once,” Jaehyun shoots, arching an eyebrow and meeting his eyes across the room. “Getting old, Moon.”

Someone whistles under their breath in the silence that drops like a heavy blanket. Johnny feels like he’s watching a disaster in working and can’t make himself look away. Taeyong clears his throat and brings everyone’s attention back to the screen. Jaehyun’s eyes linger on Taeil for a distasteful moment before his face turns apathetic again. 

“The ring is the only thing our… benefactor needs,” Taeyong says carefully. “But we’re not about to break into a highly secure facility just for some trinket.”

“I didn’t say you could steal something else,” Taeil shoots, agitated.

Ten rolls his eyes at him. “I’m not planning a heist and not getting anything out of it for myself. Yeah, the promises of death are scary, but I have my eye on some fancy Incan matrimonial head masks. Plus, it’s going to be too obvious if we just take one thing.”

It’s sound logic, and Taeil can’t argue with that. And well, Ten does have a thing for Incan matrimonial head masks. Johnny sniffs and rubs his lips.

“You’ve lost touch, Moonie,” he murmurs loud enough to Taeil to make out the words.

“And you’re about to lose a limb,” Taeil threatens.

“Don’t test me,” Mark steps in, and after some tense silence, it’s back to business.

Namjoon clicks a few buttons, and all of them train their eyes on a paparazzi picture of a tall, bespectacled man caught mid-movement, his long hair pulled back in a semblance of a braid. Johnny recognizes his sharp eyes and thin lips. 

“This is the man who runs the whole thing,” Ten announces. “On the night we’re hitting the museum, he’s having an exhibition of rare items, which is our first point of entry.”

“He knows me personally,” Taeyong steps in, arms crossed. “In my days at the _Limitless_ , I curated a rare-books library, and we had a few meetings concerning the exhibits. To the best of my knowledge, he doesn’t know that I’ve stepped down from the position.”

Taeil snorts, but nobody pays him any heed. Seokjin distributes small brochures with a grand hotel on the cover. Mark taps his fingers over the glossy front.

“Do we have enough people?” He asks, worrying his lip.

“For now, I think yes,” Ten confirms, “but I’ll need to run some analysis to know for sure.”

A murmur of discussion over the room takes over for a minute, but there’s nothing to really talk about. They don’t have a choice but to do this, and there’s something more than just money in it.

“I miss stealing art,” Johnny confesses in a whisper, earning a cheeky smirk from Mark. “This is gonna be fun.”

They look over the room and notice Taeil drilling Jaehyun with his eyes again. Mark scoots closer to Johnny and leans on his chest.

“Either deadly or hilarious,” he says with a sigh. “But let’s get this shit done.”

//

_“First thing first — reconnaissance.”_

_“I’m having a flashback.”_

_“And I’m developing an ulcer. Tough shit, cookie.”_

The Kims take up their old role and infiltrate the _Empathy_ , placing minor bets and lounging around to study the guard rotation. Hoseok gets a job as the dealer and spends his first week of training, pretending not to know shit about cards and having to hang around in the backrooms, which provides him a good point of surveillance. 

Another thing that comes in handy is the fact that attached to _Empathy_ , stands a dance club that connects a few of their crew in nostalgic and sentimental ways they always talk about with soft voices — a strip club Johnny grew up in. His mother’s memory is still alive in there, the plaque they put up for her polished and cared for even a decade later, so nobody objects when Johnny pouts his way into the back room and gets them a covert entrance into the casino.

_Now, power. Jaehyun is taking care of that.”_

Jaehyun doesn’t resurface for a few days, cowering in shadows and working outside the house, studying the museum’s security system. When he finally appears, he has a full circuit laid out in his notepad, and Ten curses under his breath when they realize the casino and museum have the same source.

“Can we tap into just one of them? We need everybody down at the Hotel thinking everything’s okay while we hit the museum.”

“Are you underestimating my abilities?”

“Nah, I’m just playing into your competitive streak.”

“Well, it’s working.”

Two days later, Jaehyun throws a piece of paper at Ten containing the codes he will have to press into a tiny dialing pad he throws next. They will reset only a part of the generator and give them a three-minute window before someone notices the issue to do the con. They’ve had less time when they were robbing the _Limitless_ , so it’ll make do.

_“Third task — surveillance.”_

Namjoon experiences a minor breakdown on the fourth day of trying to get inside the system, but they’ve fucked themselves over with this one that time they robbed Taeil. The word got out, and _Empathy_ enforced their security after their neighbors were hit and rid of 160 million, so now their system is airtight. 

“We need to get Namjoon on the inside,” Ten reckons, rubbing his chin. “And get him a minute inside the control room.”

Taeyong flinches and pouts. “It’s time I visit my old friend, then.”

Taeil huffs and orders him a car. Taeyong leaves the room to get into one of his best suits. Johnny dusts Namjoon off.

“You can pass off as a bodyguard,” he muses, and Namjoon shoots him a panicked look.

“What does that mean?”

Nobody answers him, trickling out of the living room to go prepare. Namjoon stands in the middle of the room like a very tall and a very confused child. Seokjin cooes at him.

//

Yuta Nakamoto looks like a cat that just ate a particularly tasty and fat mouse. He flashes Taeyong a happy grin and gives him a gentle hug, careful not to get his suit creased. For someone who looks as ruggedly handsome as is humanly possible, he sure does care a lot about keeping the messy look intact.

“Long time no see,” Yuta purrs as he leads Taeyong to the table. “You can lose the bodyguards, darling, nobody is hurting you here.”

“I am sure of it,” Taeyong smiles politely and flicks his wrist, dismissing Namjoon, Yoongi, and Taehyung. “Don’t stray too far.”

“They can hang out with my guards,” Yuta offers oh so generously, not aware that he just deliberately let the enemy into his lair.

Taeyong watches Yuta’s guards lead his boys into the backrooms and sends a quiet prayer after them. If everything goes according to plan, the Kims will create a distraction and stage a fight — at which they are very good, while Namjoon taps into the inner circuit, and then they have the eyes on the cameras.

“So, where were you?” Yuta asks, pouring them two glasses.

“Here and there,” Taeyong hums.

Yuta meets his eyes, and not for the first time since he’s met him, Taeyong thinks about the sharp intelligence hiding behind his glossy eyes tinted with a black eyeshadow and covered with glasses he doesn’t need. Yuta smirks at him. Taeyong shifts in his seat and wonders how the others are doing.

“What are you up to these days?” Yuta wonders innocently.

Taeyong almost laughs. _Planning to rob you, actually._

//

_“Fourth thing on the agenda — construction. This time around, we need to replicate the museum’s laser sensor security system. Jaehyun and Taehyung are helping with that.”_

Jimin is flawless, they have to hand him that, but even with his flexibility and speed, he fails to get through the system and back in under three minutes, and he still has to work on the glass case. Considering he’s also not that proficient at glass-cutting, they’ve run into a problem. Part of that problem is that Jimin hates losing.

“I can get to the case, but it’ll take me twice the time to break into it,” he seethes, glaring angrily at the damned thing. “And aside from that fucking ring, I’m also supposed to be climbing to the ceiling to work the cameras, and I’m amazing, but I can’t clone myself.”

Johnny chews on his lips and arches an eyebrow at him. “You have any acrobat friends that want to make money?”

Jimin shakes his fringe in thought but comes up empty. Ten drops his phone on the table and smirks at them.

“I have one.”

//

Xiaojun looks like a scared doe but beats Jimin’s record at getting through the laser, and while it makes Jimin grit his jaw so hard Yoongi spaces out looking at him, they hire him immediately. 

“Where did you get him?” Seokjin asks, an impressed face turned to where Jimin and Xiaojun are basically performing a circus show under the ceiling.

“Jeno found him,” Ten says, throwing a cookie into his mouth. “I asked him to send out a word in the system, and Jun responded. The kids worked a case with him once, so they recommended him.”

“Pretty convenient, isn’t it?” Taeyong hums, side-eyeing them. “The system.”

Taeil squints at them from across the room, undoubtedly reading too much into this conversation. Nobody can blame him, though.

Ten winks at him and pops his lips. “Oh, it’s simply glorious.”

//

_“Fifth task — intelligence. We’ll have Taeyong glued to Yuta all throughout the evening, but we can’t rule out the possibility of him sneaking away. Plus, the vault from the casino is only accessible by both Yuta’s and the head of security’s codes. Security’s? We can get. Yuta’s? Not so much.”_

_“Do we know if he’s gay?”_

_“Oh, very much so.”_

_“Then we have an in.”_

_“Are we gonna address the fact Taeyong is so sure of that?”_

Jaehyun leaves the house looking like he just stepped off a GQ cover, and Johnny legit sees the appeal. Yuta won’t know what hit him. Taeil goes very quiet and very grim when he learns what Jaehyun left to do, and Johnny feels like he owes it to himself to finally connect the dots.

“Taeil is ace, right?” He asks while they’re getting ready for sleep. 

He had to forcibly pry Mark off of his work table, because that man is a brilliant businessman but shitty at taking care of himself. He’s goaded him with kisses and a few half-hearted threats, and finally they’re here, in _their_ bedroom, and Mark is stretching over the bed like a cat. Johnny loves every little sound that escapes him.

“Asexual, yeah,” Mark confirms, yawning and snuggling up closer. “Everybody knows it. What people don’t know, though, that it doesn’t mean he’s an emotionless cold freak. I mean he is, but it has nothing to do with his sexuality. Rumors are he’s had a few boyfriends over the years, so I guess he does have a thing for romance, but it never lasted.”

“I wonder why,” Johnny breathes out rhetorically, wrapping his hands around Mark and drawing him closer. 

“He’s not…” Mark groans and sniffs. “I know what the perception of him is, but he’s not… you know, _evil._ ”

“Mark, he had you beat up and taped.”

“Oh, when will you let that go?” Mark snaps, sitting up. Johnny immediately misses his warmth. “ _I’ve_ let it go, why can’t you?”

Johnny plays with the hem of the blanket, looking over Mark’s exposed back. The bruises had long faded, but he still knows exactly where they were, has been mapping them with his lips, every touch — an apology. He wonders if Mark figured out what he was doing and just let Johnny have it.

“Because you’re the most important thing in my life,” he whispers. “And I know I can never repay for what I’ve done to you.”

Mark looks down on him with shiny eyes and leans in, leaving gentle kisses along his chin. Johnny buries a hand in his hair and turns his head to kiss him properly, rolling them over to pin Mark to the bed.

“Every second you are with me now,” Mark whispers, his eyes closed, “worth more than every hour that you weren’t.”

It makes Johnny feel like he’s basking in the sun at the beach, a gentle breeze of the ocean rolling over his skin with every touch of Mark’s hands. He lets himself enjoy it and forget about the guilt for at least some time.

Later, when Mark is fast asleep in his arms and Johnny lies there, soothing blows of air from the open window drying the sweat on his skin, he lets his mind wander to the times before Taeil showed his true colors. It was a fun and adventurous time, he can’t deny, and Johnny could forget the void that was the absence of Ten in the times they run crazy heists under Taeil.

His greed and selfishness aside, Taeil, at least, was always honest about who he was, and up until the point he screwed them all, Taeil was, virtually, a good fucking guy. Johnny thinks about the ring in a glass case, shining under the dozens of laser sensors, and wonders who Taeil is now.

//

Jaehyun comes back in the morning with a bruise on his neck and the face of someone who had a relatively good time last night. He walks right past a brooding Taeil in the kitchen and stops before Ten in the living room.

“The code,” he says, dropping a napkin on the table. Then, he puts an empty greased glass on top of it. “The fingerprints.”

“Amazing job,” Ten praises.

“Thanks. Now I need a shower.”

He leaves silently, leaving Ten and Taeil alone in the room.

“Did you call him on purpose?” Taeil asks, hiding his scowl in his coffee cup. “Just to fuck with me?”

“I created that whole heist just to fuck with you,” Ten reminds him, hiding away the napkin with Yuta’s code. “And he’s the best in the business.”

Taeil drains the rest of his coffee into the sink and leaves the room. Ten dials a number.

It rings twice. He smirks when laughter sounds from the phone. “So that was fun.”

//

_“Sixth thing. We need transport for the getaway and for the distraction. Seokjin? Pull out your acting again.”_

_“Easy. I miss threatening people.”_

Seokjin has not lost his marvelous touch, as it turns out as he hauls in three new vans, a new laptop, and a goddamn set of throwing darts.

“I get the cars and the laptop,” Ten says, looking at Seokjin’s prize dumbfounded. “But why the darts?”

“It just happened in the moment,” Seokjin confesses, rubbing his chin. 

“We can use it,” Xiaojun assures them, appearing out of the house and leaving as quickly but with the darts package under his arm. Jimin high-fives him as he enters the garage.

Ten decides to let it be and checks an item off the list.

//

 _“And the last but not least — props.”_

_“Jaehyun said he’s bored because he already did his part. I’ll give him a task.”_

All Jaehyun asks for is two brass hex nuts, a few fake diamonds, and some instruments, and two hours later, he emerges out of a small room he shut himself in with metal dust covering his clothes. Johnny watches him carry something in his hand as he walks up to Taeil and grabs his hand. Dread and horror are the two most colorful emotions that break through Taeil’s mask of calmness. Jaehyun slips the ring on the finger and turns it around, inspecting it. 

“The size fits,” he murmurs to himself. “Does the design look genuine?”

Taeil blinks to break out of the daze and looks down to see the family crest pattern and gapes at the inscription.

“Uncanny, even the diamonds are the same,” he breathes out. “Did you have a picture?”

“No, just spent a long time looking at it,” Jaehyun says coldly and takes the ring off. “I’ll need another hour to polish it off, and then you have your fake.”

He disappears without another word, and Johnny has the unlikely honor and the immeasurable pleasure to witness Moon Taeil looking like someone smacked him with a block of cement. Johnny even entertains the thought of snapping a picture, but then remembers he has a family to care for, and gets back to drawing the escape plan. 

//

“Let us go over the details one more time.”

They all gather in the living room once again, and Ten pulls up the blueprints again, but this time around, they’re painted with arrows and dots. He cracks his neck and starts talking.

“Two days from now, Yuta Nakamoto is hosting an exhibition that will guest the best and richest of the Vegas-frequenting elite. They will wine and dine and spend money that they won’t miss, and at the end of the evening, they will proceed to the museum on the top floor of the _Empathy_ hotel to view various precious items Yuta have bought off the black market over the years, including Taeil’s family ring, but if we are successful, by the time the guests come up, there will be nothing to see.

“Repeat your roles. Taeyong and Taeil?”

“I’m distracting Yuta, Taeil is practicing that thing we talked about.”

“I told you already, I _do_ know how to smile, I just don’t waste it. I don’t need practicing.”

Jaehyun rolls his eyes on the floor next to Johnny and makes sure Taeil sees it. This is fun, Johnny reckons, and he really needs to pry that story out of someone. Mark’s being stubborn and insisting he doesn’t know, but Johnny feels he saw some shit back in the day.

“Anyway, while the dream-team there works Yuta, Jeongguk and I climb the vents like good old times, and sneak into the server room to connect the pad Jaehyun so graciously supplied us with. That one knocks out the lights, and?”

Jimin perks up and fist-bumps Xiaojun, whom he apparently already befriended. “By that time, Jun and I are already in the museum, waiting for you to shut off the main security system. Then, Jun goes to replace the ring, and I do my special assignment.”

“What special assignment?” Yoongi frowns.

“The one that will make this whole thing lucrative,” Ten says sweetly, ignoring a glare from Taeil. “The rest know their places?”

“Seokjin and I are posing as high-society assholes,” Taehyung recites happily. “Making sure nobody wanders off to where they’re not supposed to be.”

“Won’t Yuta notice that you were playing Taeyong’s bodyguard a week before you rolled up as a millionaire?” Taeil questions.

Taehyung scoffs at him. “If he even noticed my face, I’ll give you a hundred bucks. You capitalists never memorize the help.”

“I know the face and name of every employee in my hotels.”

“Cause you’re a freak. Next question?”

Mark perks up. “ _I_ am crashing the party and creating an argument with Taeil when I get the signal. That will not be hard.”

Johnny snickers into his palm and squeezes Mark’s thigh. “I will give said signal when we need the rest to safely get out of the building without creating suspicion.”

“Don’t forget who uses which exit. Do we have Yuta’s bodyguards covered?”

“That’s me.” Yoongi raises his hand. “I offer them a friendly drink that has a very strong roofie in it.”

“Good.” Ten goes over the list. “Johnny and Namjoon are manning the getaway cars. I think we’re set.”

Taeil bumps his cane against the wall. “Are you sure that’ll work?”

Ten looks him up and down and curls his lips. He doesn’t even dignify it with an answer, dismissing everyone with a wave. Johnny sees Taeil slowly reach a boiling point as Jaehyun smirks, and can’t help but admire Ten for the umpteenth time. That guy really got balls.

//

Jaehyun is putting the finishing polishing touches on the fake ring when the door opens.

He knows who it is without looking up, and it makes him hate himself even more than he did before. He spent years keeping himself so busy he doesn’t even have time to think about Taeil, but being locked in one house and heist with him brought out every ugly and petty urge he’s ever experienced toward the guy. While it’s fun to push his buttons, every action takes out his own energy, and he fears he’s going to be completely spent by the time they finish this thing and he can escape once again.

Come to think of it, he’s getting really tired of running.

“We didn’t get a chance to talk alone,” Taeil says quietly, the door flowing closed behind him.

Jaehyun shrugs without turning off the metal cutter. “That was intentional.”

He hears Taeil huff and stomp closer to smash the ‘off’ button. Jaehyun sighs and sits up, stretching his back and pulling off the safety glasses. The ring shines like real gold in the pliers.

“I wonder what’s so special about this tiny thing,” he murmurs, stroking the engraving with a finger. “That it got your panties all in a twist. It’s just a trinket.”

“It’s a powerful symbol,” Taeil corrects him. “And it carries great meaning for me.”

That one stings. He’s willing to recruit the people who hate him to get it back, but he didn’t even bother driving to another city when Jaehyun disappeared on him. He doesn’t voice it, leaving it lying bitterly at the bottom of his stomach. 

“I’m pretty much done here,” he muses, getting up and discarding the apron. “Gotta get this to Xiaojun.”

He almost makes it to the door when Taeil calls out for him, and he almost, _almost_ ignores it, but old habits die hard.

“I’m not doing this just because of the ring,” Taeil says so quietly Jaehyun barely catches it. “Please, don’t think I went to such lengths just for some jewelry.”

“You misunderstand, Taeil,” Jaehyun says slowly, turning around and looking at him tiredly. He can admit he’s missed him. “I don’t think about you.”

“Don’t you?”

He grits his teeth as Taeil comes closer, hands in his pocket. He left his cane somewhere, and his loose-fitting shirt with an open collar makes him look like the guy Jaehyun had the stupidity to fall for all those years ago. He swallows and tries to compose himself.

“I know you’ve been listening to my messages,” Taeil murmurs when he’s just two feet away.

“Wanted to make sure you’re still an asshole.”

“Really?”

“Stop doing this shit, Taeil. Stop taunting me. We’re done, we’ve been done for years, and I don’t give a shit about your reasons to do this. You want a stupid fucking ring? We’ll steal your stupid fucking ring. But don’t think it changes anything between us.”

Taeil stops him by extending his hand to wrap his fingers around Jaehyun’s wrist. He doesn’t even try to break away, because some selfish and really fucking idiotic part of him misses his touch. Taeil circles his thin wrist and stops his thumb over Jaehyun’s pulse point.

“Your heart is freaking out,” he observes, the corners of his lips upturned. “You still—”

“Despise you,” Jaehyun rushes to say before Taeil can rope him into one of his mind games. “You came here to get the ring, I was here by accident. So don’t start anything.”

“We were good together,” Taeil hums, as if he didn’t hear anything of what Jaehyun just said.

“We imploded, Taeil,” Jaehyun reminds him, breaking his hand away from his grasp. “Because for all your fancy talk and expensive gifts, maybe people were right. You _don’t_ know how to love. You want to own things, and when I didn’t want to be owned anymore, you lashed out.”

He vividly sees the hurt in Taeil’s eyes, because _he just knows him that fucking well_ , but he can’t stop speaking, years of silence and pain finally overflowing and exploding out of him like poison. 

“You couldn’t even openly admit we were together,” he recalls, his voice wavering. “I was your dirty little secret, and the only thing you had to do to get me to stay was telling at least one person about us. Do you need a reminder of what you did instead? You told me that if you weren’t enough for me as it is, I could leave, _and when I did just that,_ instead of apologizing like a decent human being, you persecuted the only friend that ever helped me and got a plan to break his husband. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why do you always have to hurt people to cover up the fact that you’re damaged and bruised yourself? Why did you have to push me away when I loved you exactly the way you were?”

“Because I got fucking scared!” Taeil shouts, his eyes wide as saucers and moist, his chest heaving. “Is that what you want to hear? That I got scared of how perfect you were because people never fucking are? That I didn’t think I deserved to have someone like you? That it felt safer to stick to numbers and contracts rather than dealing with emotions?”

Jaehyun bites his lips to keep them from quivering and takes a steadying breath.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” he whispers. “Five years ago.”

Taeil blinks, tears falling on his cheeks from his eyelashes. Jaehyun curls his fist so hard his nails cut into the palm, but in the end, he still raises it to wipe the water away. Taeil looks at him like he did at his most vulnerable, and Jaehyun is weak, he’s always been for this man here, and so he leans in and presses his lips to Taeil’s cheek.

“Let it go,” he whispers, eyes closed. Taeil smells the same. “We’re done.”

He turns to leave, but his hand freezes on the handle when he hears Taeil’s voice again.

“They have Donghyuck.”

Jaehyun stares at the crack on the door, his thoughts coming to a screeching halt. “What?”

“Yuta and his crew,” Taeil says hoarsely. “They’re keeping him as leverage against me.”

The air is heavy as Jaehyun faces him and shakes his head in disbelief. “I thought he was at boarding school.”

“Yuta _is_ the boarding school,” Taeil grits through his teeth. “Dad sent him away when he was a kid and gave to complete strangers as some messed up fucking life lesson.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“I wish I was. It’s all about him, okay? I need to break him away. You said I don’t know how to love, but I do, I love my little brother, and I have to get him back.”

Jaehyun feels dizzy. “Does Ten know?”

“He doesn’t need to,” Taeil scoffs. “I’ll deal with it myself.”

He sees red as he wishes he had something to hit Taeil with. “You have to tell him, or I will.”

“It’s complicated,” Taeil mumbles with a frown as he swallows. “Hyuck barely remembers me, but I can’t leave him there any longer. Father stole him from me, and I have to steal him back.”

There’s so much to unpack there, and Jaehyun makes a strained sound, failing to choose where to start. He studies Taeil’s face, wondering if he even understands what he’s saying, if he even hears how delusional he is. 

“Tell me, Moon Taeil,” Jaehyun whispers, barely holding himself together. “Have you ever loved something you didn’t have to steal?”

Taeil meets his eyes, a strange fire burning in his own, and doesn’t give him an answer.

//

Taeyong traces the flower on Ten’s shoulder and moves to leave a ghostly touch on his scar right under the petals. Ten lets him do it, watching his eyelashes cast a long shadow on his cheekbones. He’s beautiful. It’s funny how decades later, it never fails to surprise Ten — how someone like this loves him, holds him close, gives him everything in his soul. 

“I love you,” he whispers, and feels with his skin how Taeyong smiles. 

Taeyong turns his head and kisses his arm. 

“You said it in a tone that suggests you want something,” he teases.

“You know me too well,” Ten complains. He slides down on the pillows to get their faces on one level. Taeyong looks at him kindly and patiently, and Ten can’t resist stealing a quick kiss before gearing up to say it. “I’m scared.”

“I know, baby,” Taeyong whispers, reaching up and smoothing out Ten’s frown. “This is the most elaborate plan you’ve ever designed. But it will be okay, I promise.”

“What if he finds out?” Ten murmurs, swallowing heavily. “He’ll chase us down to the ends of the Earth.”

“M-m,” Taeyong hums as he stretches and throws his leg over Ten’s. “He won’t. We have some really powerful people on our side, and besides, if this goes as planned, and it will, he will have other concerns.”

Seven years. Seven fucking years they’ve been working toward it, and tomorrow, it reaches the final stage. Ten is a planning man, and he always thinks ahead, but this somehow always felt like something permanent and eternal, and he has no idea what awaits them when this is over. He kisses Taeyong’s palm and sighs.

“Am I crazy for agreeing to it?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Taeyong says without hesitation. “You’re the maddest guy I know, and that is why I’m so whipped for you.”

Ten smirks and goes to kiss him, but a knock on the door interrupts them. He sighs and glances at the clock. It’s almost midnight, and everybody should be asleep and resting before the heist tomorrow. He groans and untangles himself from Taeyong to open the door, and no, he doesn’t give a fuck that he’s only wearing underwear. You interrupt him in the middle of the night, you get an eyeful.

All the petty thoughts fly out like Jimin that time they tested shooting him out of a cannon when he sees the look on Jaehyun’s red and puffy face.

“What’s wrong?” Taeyong calls from the bed as he sits up.

“I—” Jaehyun screws his eyes shut and sniffs. “I have to tell you something.”

//

The ballroom of the _Empathy_ hotel glares with lights and luxury, champagne towers and chocolate fountains covering the entire space. People in expensive clothes and jewelry that could feed a family for a year glide and dance around, exchanging fake laughter and words dripping with venom. It’s revolting, but Taeyong is very familiar with the scene, so he immerses himself into it like fish in water.

Taeil is giving a speech on stage, pretending he likes Yuta and finds him a valuable business partner. One of those might be true.

“I didn’t know he could smile,” Yuta pouts, squinting at Taeil. “He must’ve practiced it.”

Taeyong snickers and hooks his hand over Yuta’s elbow as they move away and navigate the crowd.

“I find it all so… pretentious,” Yuta drawls as they expertly snatch two glasses from the passing-by waiter.

Taeyong casts a sideways glance at him and smirks into his glass. “Aren’t you hosting this thing?”

“You know how it is,” Yuta hums and leads him toward a crowd of pompous benefactors. “It’s all about money, darling. It always is.”

“Not always,” Taeyong murmurs.

Yuta hears him and turns to him with a cheeky grin, but then they get within the earshot of the people he’ll be siphoning today, and he puts on his signature seller smirk. Taeyong sighs internally and keeps playing his role.

On the other side of the ballroom, Taehyung fixes his masquerade mask and taps his ear.

“He’s in position.”

Johnny signals that he copies that and presses a button. In the club, Jeongguk and Hoseok disengage from several exotic dancers who deemed them underfed and hurry into an empty changing room, dressing into the gear. Hoseok slaps the kid on the shoulder for good luck, and, after a fist-bump, they separate into two vents to meet on the other side.

Seventeen stories above them, Jimin blows a strand of pink hair away from his eyes and searches for Xiaojun in the darkness of the museum. Fancy display cases on the floor under them glow softly and cast sickish green light from the lasers on the walls. Xiaojun is suspended on the other end of the ceiling, wiggling his fingers at Jimin. Jimin winks at the other acrobat and settles his ass against the wall as he bends the knees to hang more comfortably. He’s already trained his eye on Ten’s beloved Incan matrimonial head masks.

Everything is ready. Now, they wait.

//

Taeil watches Yuta like a hawk from his comfortable corner, sipping on his whiskey. It’s peculiar and rather hilarious to watch Taeyong laugh at Yuta’s jokes. He wonders if it’s genuine or he’s just that good of an actor. Taeil likes to believe Taeyong is both. When they were playing at friendship, he often caught himself noticing little things about Taeyong’s mimic and cataloging them to learn the man better. Both his husband and he can say whatever they want, but Taeil is not an idiot. For some time there, caught between playing his perfect role and fighting his internal demons, Taeyong did become Taeil’s friend, if only for a while.

Taeyong’s eyes flicker to the entrance, and as Taeil follows his gaze, he freezes. It takes him a moment to compose himself, and he makes his way to the newly arrived couple, only barely acknowledging how dashing one of them looks.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He seethes when he nears Ten and Jaehyun. “You’re supposed to be in the vents, and _he_ isn’t even supposed to be in the building.”

“ _He_ is about to kick you,” Jaehyun says pleasantly, gracefully taking a glass from a waiter.

“What about the plan?” Taeil asks, ignoring him. Their conversation in that small room is still weighing on his mind.

Ten pops his lips, looking around bored. “The plan changed when you decided to lie to me, sweety.”

Words get stuck in Taeil’s throat as he realizes. He looks at Jaehyun, and the asshole is already looking back, a dark eyebrow bent in a silent challenge under the bleached hair. Goddamn, does he miss him.

“It’s none of your concern,” he says pointedly. “My brother is my business. Yours is the ring.”

“M-m, and tell me this,” Ten hums, still observing the room. “Where is he? Do you have a plan to get him out? Will he even want to come with you? Or will he, faced with the man he was taken from to keep him safe, cause a ruckus _that puts this entire goddamn operation at risk_?”

His eyes are sharp when they bore into Taeil on the last phrase, thinly veiled anger transforming his face. Taeil is not an easily-scared man, but once again, he’s also not an idiot — he is perfectly honest when he says Ten is a dangerous man.

“I have it under control,” he insists. “He’s in one of the rooms. I have men on the inside, and they’ve been reporting to me on his well-being since he was taken.”

Ten clicks his tongue and tilts his head, not convinced. “Tell you what.” He fixes his cufflinks. Taeil sees a lockpick glinting in his sleeve. “I’ve already included him in the plan. Your options are as follows: either you step away and let me handle this, or I’m packing my team up and we’re getting out.”

“Have you forgotten—”

“No, I have not,” Ten cuts off. “I don’t give a shit about your threats, because the second you try to interfere, I tell Yuta everything.”

This man before Taeil has been cheating people out of their money since before Taeil even started college, but he somehow knows that Ten’s not bluffing. He feels like breaking something, preferably Ten’s face, and that husband’s of his too for good measure. He breathes in deeply.

“Fine.”

“Good.” Ten flashes him a winning grin. “I’ll be seeing you.”

And just like that — he’s gone, dissolving into the crowd like it’s his second nature to blend in. Taeil swallows and chances a look at Jaehyun, who’s been watching their exchange impassively.

“And why are you here?” He asks hoarsely, anger slowly leaving him but still evident in the tremble of his fingers around the whiskey.

Jaehyun notices it and takes his glass away, discarding both of their drinks on the nearby table before offering Taeil his palm.

“I’m here to invite you to dance.”

//

The lights go off ten minutes later. Nobody in the ballroom below notices it. Yuta glances behind him for his bodyguards and sees them chatting up Taeyong’s man. He smiles to himself and turns back to the boring conversation that only Taeyong brings any interesting input into.

Lasers in the museum above flicker out and then — back up, but only half of them. Jimin and Xiaojun get to work.

//

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

Taeil admits to himself that pretending he’s watching people around them is pointless and surrenders to having to look at Jaehyun after all. Up close, he looks even more ethereal, and Taeil’s thoughts go to all those times he looked at his face in the soft glow of candles and wondered how this man was born into this world and not into a fairytale about royalty and elves. 

He put on some blush on his face. It accentuates his otherworldliness even better so.

“Of course,” he says, a smile breaking through. “You tried to steal my wallet by flirting with me.”

“Yeah,” Jaehyun breathes out dreamily, his warm eyes doing things to Taeil’s resolve. “It’s a shame I forgot where the con ended and the real thing began.”

“Nothing had to end,” he murmurs, gaze dropping to Jaehyun’s exposed collarbones. He sees a silver necklace dip into the shirt. He wonders if it’s the one. “We didn’t have to.”

The song changes, but they don’t separate, swaying a little slower now. Jaehyun’s hand is soft in his palm, a silver ring Taeil gave him years ago pressing into his skin. He’s leading the dance. Taeil wonders if Jaehyun ever figured out that he led more things than he ever suspected.

“That’s why we did, Taeil,” Jaehyun whispers, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows around a lump in his throat. “Because you still think we didn’t.”

//

“I just want it on record that I am not amused,” Yoongi grunts into the earpiece as he drugs the third bodyguard to stash them all on a cupboard. “Did I have to do it alone?”

“Everyone else is busy,” Namjoon reminds him. Yoongi hears the buzz of his equipment in the background.

“Johnny doesn’t seem to be doing much,” Yoongi mumbles under his breath, dusting himself off and locking the door behind him. 

Johnny clears his throat very obviously. “ _I’m_ making sure your boyfriend’s peachy ass doesn’t get busted. Shut up and move forward with the plan.”

Yoongi mimics him silently but does set out for the stairs, checking that nobody’s around. His part still isn’t over yet, and he has to carry it out flawlessly.

Jimin does have a peachy ass, after all.

//

“I didn’t steal _you_ , though,” Taeil muses when the silence becomes unbearable. “I never forced you into anything, and I was always honest with you.”

Jaehyun shakes his head tiredly. “I won’t argue with that. You always made me feel loved. Gave me things and as much of yourself as you could.”

Sounds too good to be true, but it is. For all his shortcomings, Taeil loved him as much as his constantly restless mind allowed. Nobody ever quite affected him like Jung Jaehyun did, and in the privacy of his mind, with Jaehyun’s warmth surrounding him, Taeil can admit that it scared him shitless.

“But you were never ready to love me,” Jaehyun echoes his thoughts. “I think that you were never ready to love anyone but yourself.”

//

“Much luxury,” Taehyung murmurs under his breath.

“Many prestige,” Seokjin echoes. “Wanna make a bet?”

“Always.”

Seokjin takes in all the fancy crowd around them and rubs his chin. “Whoever steals more shit from these assholes by the time we’re done, wins.”

“What’s the prize?” Taehyung asks, already choosing his first target with a trained eye.

“All the loot stolen.”

“Deal.”

As if he feels them plotting something outside the plan, Ten turns to look at them from across the ballroom, narrowing his eyes. Seokjin blows him a kiss and dives into the crowd, his eyes trained on a beautiful Rolex that would look amazing on Namjoon’s wrist. Taehyung targets a platinum bracelet and goes to chat up its owner.

On the upper floor of the building, Xiaojun pockets the real ring and puts the glass case back. It slides into place with a quiet whoosh, the lasers remaining undisturbed. He smirks and presses the button to get back up to the ceiling. Across from him, Jimin has already finished loading the head masks into the vent. They wink at each other and keep working.

//

“You can hate me for this question,” Taeil says with a sigh, stroking Jaehyun’s thumb, “but what really did push you away?”

Jaehyun tilts his head and chuckles sadly. His eyelashes are long and dark, framing his wide eyes with a curtain that hides their expression when he looks down. Taeil had spent years trying to figure out the mind of Jung Jaehyun, and he has to honestly admit that even now, he’s none the wiser.

“I wasn’t happy with you,” Jaehyun replies simply, if a little offended. “You kept choosing something over me, and while I could live with it for some time, eventually I realized… that I just needed to be chosen.”

Taeil’s throat constricts with all the arguments he wants to say, but they get stuck, unable to get through the barricade of guilt and remorse under his ribs.

Behind them, Ten approaches Yuta and Taeyong. They keep dancing.

//

Jeongguk joins them in the museum, his round face illuminated where he’s halfway out of the vent. He squints into the dark, trying to distinguish the acrobats.

“Are you done here?” He whispers, even though there’s nobody around and the cameras are looped, courtesy of Kim Namjoon. “You only have ten seconds left.”

“Then get out of our way,” Jimin huffs suddenly very close to him.

Jeongguk yelps and jerks, almost falling out, but Xiaojun appears as momentarily, catching him by the waist and hoisting them both up into the vent. He glares at Jeongguk silently but doesn’t comment. Jimin climbs in to them, gracefully slipping past two men deeper into the system to gather all they’ve stolen.

“Just one thing left,” Xiaojun whispers and fishes a throwing dart wrapped in a cloth out of his pocket. “You know what to do with this?”

“Yep.”

“Be careful.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“I’d argue,” Jimin calls out from somewhere deep within the vents, and Jeongguk pokes his tongue at him even though he doesn’t see him. 

“A’right,” Xiaojun verdicts, pressing the dart pouch into his palm. “Good luck. We’re gonna haul all that shit outside.”

“Yoongi’s already waiting for you,” Jeongguk says and waits until they’re out of sight to turn a corner and find the room he needs.

For something that gets so glorified in movies and media, being a criminal sure does include a lot of ventilation system climbing. Jeongguk thinks John McClane _really_ had it easy and keeps going. 

//

Jaehyun suddenly throws his head to the side and purses his lips so tightly they whiten.

“I fucking loved you, man,” he breathes out painfully, a burst of choked laughter escaping him. It breaks Taeil’s heart.

“I still do,” Taeil confesses in a whisper, praying that Jaehyun forgets all the lies he’s ever told him and believes this, because it’s one of the most obvious truths Taeil’s ever had to admit.

Jaehyun’s eyes are shining with unshed tears when he looks at Taeil, and it’s like the years separating them never happened. His memory brings him back to that day that Jaehyun left him, and how Taeil had known he’d do it when they were having their morning coffee but still gave him a kiss on the cheek and left for work. By the time he came back home, Jaehyun had been gone for hours.

“Then _choose me_.” Jaehyun’s voice is broken and sincere, the most real thing Taeil’s heard from him since they reunited. “Choose me now. Let’s just say fuck it and run away.”

The music changes, but it doesn’t matter, because he stops in his tracks, old habits kicking in and searching for deception on Jaehyun’s face, but it’s hard to stay objective when everything inside of him screams to agree, take his hand, and disappear.

He can’t, though. No matter how much it burns in his gut to say yes, there is just too much at stake.

“But Donghyuck…”

“We’ll come back for him,” Jaehyun says feverishly, a man possessed. “Now, tonight, I need you to choose me over everything, and if you do that, I swear I’ll stay by your side.”

Taeil gapes at him, lips trembling as his mouth opens and closes. His entire face feels charged with electricity, shock and temptation playing catch with his emotions. He swallows and tries to come up with an answer.

“I want to,” he murmurs. “I’ve always wanted to choose you, for as long as I’ve known you. But, Jaehyun, there are things…”

He’s interrupted by a bitter laugh. A tear falls on Jaehyun’s cheek as he turns his head to look at the lights to try and stop the flow. Taeil wipes the salty water away with his thumb and lets his hand linger on Jaehyun’s jaw.

Someone shouts. He vaguely recognizes the voice as Mark’s, and something is tugging at his mind, but he can’t get distracted, not when he finally has Jaehyun’s focus, however wavering, solely on him. The man lowers his face, and where fire burned in his eyes just mere moments ago, there are ashes, dull and smothered.

“Be honest with me, Taeil,” he mutters. “What’s this heist really about?”

Fear undercuts the longing in his heart, and he suddenly thinks, _does he know?_

But then another memory surfaces — Jaehyun holding him as he breaks with his brother’s baby pictures clutched in his hands, and he thinks, _I want him to know._

“The ring opens a safe,” he finds himself saying, lips numb. “With the documents to offshore accounts and properties that my father didn’t want me to own. He wanted Hyuck to inherit them, which is why his DNA is the second thing needed to open it. I want to bring my brother back and give him what he is rightfully owed.”

Jaehyun’s lips curl into an ‘o’ as he processes it. And then he smiles.

“Do you really expect me to believe your motivation was so selfless?” 

“ _Yes._ ” He insists with a frown. “I want to reunite my family, what’s left of it, and give my brother his throne.”

“Does he want it?” Jaehyun wonders, tipping his chin to the side.

Taeil goes to answer but comes up short. “I… didn’t ask.”

“Exactly.” Jaehyun steps closer to hug him and puts his lips to Taeil’s ear, his breath gushing over Taeil’s neck as he whispers, “You never ask, my love.”

The argument between Yuta and Mark reaches a boiling point that can’t be ignored anymore. Taeil casts his eyes toward them and sees Yuta look around him helplessly for his bodyguards but not find them, so he grabs Mark by the elbow, and they both storm out. The party resumes as if nothing happened without its host, and Ten subtly touches Taeyong’s wrist before looking around and ducking past the railing separating the ballroom from the staircase. Taeyong waits until he’s on the second floor to join Mark and Yuta outside.

Jaehyun wraps his fingers around Taeil’s elbow and turns him in the direction of the stairs Ten took a moment before. Taeil’s eyes fall closed as he feels soft lips on his cheek once again.

“You need to go. Room 712,” Jaehyun whispers, slipping a keycard into his palm. “Get what you wish, Moon Taeil, but please, never forget me.”

By the time Taeil whips around to tell him he could never rid his mind of the memories of Jung Jaehyun, he is gone. Taeil searches aimlessly for him in the crowd, but if there was ever one thing Jaehyun was good at, it’s disappearing.

He quenches the burning hurt of disappointment and heartbreak inside and follows Ten upstairs.

//

They finish hauling the stolen artifacts into the vans and take off without another word. Johnny reaches out to Mark in the passenger's seat and intertwines their fingers. Behind them, Taehyung and Seokjin argue about their winnings, with Namjoon silently working on his laptop to erase any signs of his intrusion into the security system.

In the van on another road they took to avoid suspicion, Jimin and Yoongi laugh at something Hoseok had said. They don’t bother Jaehyun, who seems rather reluctant to engage in a conversation, his back against the van door, his eyes cast outside at the stunning and bright full moon in the sky. 

//

The room is only illuminated by a single nightlight when Taeil enters. He closes the door behind him and tries the light switch. Doesn’t work.

“Donghyuck?” He calls out, feeling for his pocket knife.

“Sorry to disappoint.”

His eyes dart to the window, and that’s when he notices Ten’s silhouette. He curls up his fists.

“Where’s my brother?” He seethes, stomping toward the conman.

“Switzerland,” Ten explains coldly.

Ten’s hand darts forward, and what Taeil originally assumed to be a gun turns out to be just a phone, the screen illuminated and showing an ongoing FaceTime call with a number starting with _+41_. But it doesn’t concern him, no, because what gets his attention is a young man on the screen, his eyes round and scared.

“Taeil?” Comes a tinny and painfully familiar voice.

He grabs the phone and comes closer to the light to let his face be seen.

“Hey, little brother,” he whispers, overcome with emotion. “Are you okay? What did they do to you?”

“Nothing,” Hyuck says with a frown, and now that Taeil gets a good look at him, there doesn’t seem to be any bruises or signs of mistreatment. He looks healthy and… happy. “Ten told me what you wanted to do.”

Taeil snaps his head up. Ten motions to his ear, and he connects the dots — Jaehyun had a mic on, and Taeil bought his ruse like a careless fucking idiot.

“Listen, I don’t know what he told you,” he says, shaking it off and looking back at his brother. “But I swear I only have good intentions. I love you, and I want us to reunite, I want to give you…”

“I don’t want it.”

He chokes on air. Hyuck looks at him in confusion.

“I don’t want more than I have,” Hyuck repeats, sniffing. “My allowance is enough. Yuta takes good care of me. I’m going to school, and I’m happy here.”

“But I—”

“Won’t get that extra money, I know.” Hyuck smiles sadly and looks off-camera. Taeil thinks he recognizes someone’s voice in the background, but Hyuck quickly shooshes them. “Sorry about that. You can come see me if you want, but I’m not opening that safe.”

Taeil stares at the screen, lost at what to do. He’s been thinking about it for years now, obsessing over every little detail, and yet Donghyuck, in true Moon family fashion, derailed every plan and ambushed him with something unexpected. 

“I love you, Taeil,” Hyuck murmurs, rubbing his eyes. “I miss you so much, and I wish you were… thinking about me, and not the money. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t… You don’t understand,” Taeil whispers, cogs in his mind turning at burning speed.

“Oh, I do. You see, brother, it’s about honor.”

He doesn’t get to question what it means. Sounds of wailing sirens reach him from the open window. Then, something sharp hits him in the neck. The darkness takes him.

//

“Because I know a thing or two about honor.”

Taeil snarls at him, but he doesn’t have time to respond. The officer opens the cell, and Ten looks at him for a verdict. Taeil rubs his face as the cop tilts his head and smirks. 

“You ready to go in for life, Chittaphon?”

His head hurts so much it’s hard to blink, so the image of Ten being taken away is blurry. He groans and rubs his eyes, and then throws his head against the wall, reckoning he deserves the sharp pain that shoots through it.

Moon Taeil just got fucking busted, and he doesn’t even know his charges yet. A rational part of his mind, the one in control of his life choices, is already going over the lawyers he can call. He’ll probably pin it all on Ten, the two-faced fucker. He wonders where the officer took him.

Thinking about how much he hates the man allows him not to think about people who once again turned away from him. Hyuck and Jaehyun. His brother and his… nothing. Really. It’s just nothing. 

The cell is empty, so nobody sees him bury his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking.

//

“Ready to go in for life?” Ten repeats, barely holding in his laughter that can echo back to the cell. “Really? Dramatic much?”

Kun smirks proudly and leads him out of the building and into the underground parking lot, where he takes off the handcuffs and twirls them around his finger.

“But you _are_ getting shackled for life, though,” he argues as they climb into the car.

Ten rubs his wrists and smiles, thinking about a small velvet box waiting for its hour. “I take it you’re coming to the wedding, then?”

The car swerves out of the parking lot and into the night, turning on a busy road illuminated with neon and moonlight.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Kun assures him. “Seeing how things are going, this is the only wedding I’ll be attending soon.”

“Doyoung is still ranting about the pointlessness of the marriage institution?” Ten guesses, getting his phone out of the glove compartment and checking for messages.

“Yeah, Yuta is miserable.” He laughs and shakes his head. “You should see him. He’s learned wedding metaphors and keeps dropping them in conversations, hoping Doyoung takes the hint.” 

“Fun times,” Ten comments. “Wait, where’s Gguk?”

“Hendery picked him up, they’re supposed to be at Mark’s already.”

“Good.”

He scrolls to Taeyong’s message chain and finds a selfie of his boyfriend cuddling the team and showing off an Incan matrimonial head mask. Ten chuckles and saves the picture. The car navigates the streets of Las Vegas, and Ten looks at the moon, the jitters in his bones subsiding as he recounts yet another plan going off without a hitch.

//

_six months ago._

The first time they see Yuta, they take an instant liking to the man. He looks expensive and acts like it, but the glossy eyes behind hipster glasses hide a sharp mind that made him one of the most feared men on this side of the border. And nobody even knows his name.

“I’m not surprised Moon-senior chose you,” he says after their lunch is already eaten. “I’ve heard about the heists you pull off, darlings.”

“Ten’s the brain,” Taeyong clarifies, taking Ten’s hand. “I’m also the brain, but I usually translate his insane plans to others.”

“A perfect team,” Yuta commends with a nod. “Anyway, I don’t want to keep you, and it’s better we’re not seen together, so let’s wrap this up.”

“Why did you want to meet, though?” Ten wonders, not ready to let this go just yet. “To see our faces?”

Yuta licks his teeth, regarding Ten with an amused look. “You’re smart. Yes. Don’t get me wrong, our little line of communication via penpalling but never talking was fun, but I like to protect my family, and for that, I need to have a face for the name.”

“Fair enough,” Taeyong notes. 

“And don’t think I didn’t realize what you were doing with that little trick of yours,” Yuta continues, flicking his wrist. “Sending your kids to do a job for me? I was wondering how come the system spat out such a young team for the assignment I needed done.”

Ten smiles politely, reminding himself to send another muffin basket to Namjoon. It wasn’t easy — intercepting the call Yuta sent out last year when he needed help on robbing some Egyptian tombs and assigning the kids on it, especially when Namjoon was head deep in working on hacking the _Limitless_ vault, but he still got it done.

That way, Ten killed two birds with one stone — put the kids on the map as capering prodigies and let Yuta know that he was watching. 

“They’ve proven themselves, have they not?”

“Oh, truly, I love them,” Yuta rushes to confirm. “Hyuck is still talking to them. It’s good. The boy needs more friends.”

“Does he still need his brother?” Taeyong questions quietly, fingers playing with an olive in his martini. “In other words, are we still on the whole paying Taeil back thing?”

Yuta’s cat-like eyes flicker over them, and in that look, Ten sees how he’s assessing them, putting them to the last test. He doesn’t move to straighten his back, because he doesn’t want to seem too eager, but goddamn, even his arrogant ass can admit they need Yuta on their side. He’s the most powerful protection you can think of. His crew is the shadiest and largest underground security crowd there is. 

“We’ll keep in touch,” Yuta says diplomatically. After a beat of silence, he bursts out laughing. “Ah, fuck it, I can’t resist it, I like you folks. Come by the house and meet the others, will you? Kun’s been dying to meet the infamous Calaïs.”

And thus, a friendship is born.

//

Ten breathes out and listens to the rings break off, a low voice responding.

“Hope you’re ready.”

Yuta chuckles. Ten hears blues in the background, Doyoung’s favorite track annoying his cohabitants. Hendery yells at him to shut that shit up, and there’s a sound of glass breaking. Xiaojun’s laughter rings out.

“I’ve been ready for years, darling,” Yuta reminds him. “Did he crawl to you as I predicted?”

“More like pompously walked in,” Ten laughs. “He has a cane now. But yeah, you were right. He wants the ring. Didn’t even mention Hyuck.”

“What an ass.”

“Are we surprised?” 

“Not in the slightest.” 

“We will arrive in Vegas tonight.” He goes over the flight details. “Taeil will be with us in the house, so we’re gonna have to stick to texting, sorry.”

“Ah, I’m gonna miss your annoying voice,” Yuta whines.

“Idiot,” Ten breathes out, not without affection. Somehow, he got attached to this dramatic bitch. “Stay safe.”

“Always am. Don’t blow your cover.” Yuta sighs and murmurs something off-phone. “Right, Doie needs me to tie something for him. _I just hope it’s the knot._ ”

Ten rolls his eyes when the line clicks off. Talking to Yuta made him feel better, but he’s still wound up. If this heist goes south...

He slams the car door after himself and grips the steering wheel, biting his lips so hard the skin breaks. Taeyong wipes off the blood and kisses him.

“Let’s get this shit done.”

//

“What are you up to these days?” Yuta wonders innocently.

Taeyong almost laughs. 

“Planning to rob you, actually,” he says, tilting his head. 

“Oh, cool.” Yuta pours him another drink and grins. “Don’t forget the head masks. I heard Ten especially likes them.”

“Yeah, he already found where to sell them.”

“How’s Jun?”

“Perfect, thank you.” Taeyong finds it extremely cute that Yuta is worrying about his crew like they were his own children. It makes him relatable. “Jimin got competitive, but now they’re besties, I think.”

They share a laugh as Yuta watches the crowd around them. “So what are you doing here?”

“No spoilers, remember?” Taeyong shifts in his chair. “We’re just two old acquaintances, enjoying a catch-up conversation.”

Yuta pouts and props his chin with his palm. “I know I promised Ten the realism, but I’m curious as to how you’re doing it.”

It’s surreal, but somehow sounds logical when Taeyong remembers Yuta is involved. For the authenticity and to make sure Taeil buys it, the heist is real, and yes, Taeyong has pointed out the irony to Ten countless times, yet his boyfriend just likes his job too much. Yuta legit doesn’t have a clue as to how they’re going to do it. Everything they’re stealing? Yuta is getting rid of it anyway, so they’ll just flip it at the black market and split the cash, with everyone on the team getting equal shares. But how exactly they’re doing it? He’ll just have to wait and see. 

They’re friends now, but Taeyong can’t help but suspect this is just another test of Yuta’s. This is how he is as a person. He’s keeping an old promise he once gave Moon Taeil-senior, but he’s also judging if Ten is really worth his salt. Taeyong sips on his drink, absolutely calm.

He knows his Ten, and that man is worth everything. 

//

The phone rings twice. He smirks when Yuta’s laughter sounds from the phone. “So that was fun.”

“Did Taeil see the hickey?”

“Oh yeah,” Ten breathes out, recalling Taeil going red like a tomato. “How did you do that?”

“There was Yangyang and a small vacuum cleaner.”

“Jesus.”

“Jaehyun remembered Satan more when we did it.”

“I reckon.”

//

“I—” Jaehyun screws his eyes shut and sniffs. “I have to tell you something.”

Ten beckons him into the room and sits him down on the bed, rubbing his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

“He told me,” Jaehyun reveals, rubbing his red eyelids. “About Hyuck. He doesn’t know we know, but now…”

“He’ll blame you,” Taeyong finishes for him sadly. He wraps his hands around Jaehyun’s shoulders and holds him close, trying to comfort him. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jaehyun whispers. “It’s not like I care what he thinks of me… I just… I don’t know, feel like shit.”

Ten shares a look with Taeyong. He can’t even imagine what Jaehyun is feeling right now, and he never could, because it’s how he said himself — Ten’s feelings for Taeyong, however similar, are drastically different in nature than Jaehyun’s for Taeil. Ten and Taeyong are in love. Jaehyun and Taeil, ever since they met, were in a constant chase of who can hurt the other more. And Taeil keeps fucking winning.

That’s why Ten has to make sure he pays the full price.

“We’re changing the plan.”

//

“I’m salivating, I think,” Jeongguk confesses as they all gather around the loot and stare at the massive pile of art and jewelry.

“Mood,” Hendery comments, but his oozing saliva can be justified by the huge sandwich he’s trying to bite. Kun flinches and gives him a napkin.

Ten laughs at them and disentangles from Taeyong, who’s too engrossed in a conversation with Yuta, anyway. 

He finds Jaehyun on the patio, leaning on the railing and playing with a familiar ring.

“You can keep it,” Ten comments. “Hyuck said he doesn’t have any use for it, anyway, but if he ever does, you’re safe to keep it with for now.”

Jaehyun pouts thoughtfully and slips it on his ring finger. It fits perfectly. Ten rubs a silver band on his own.

“He was…” Jaehyun sniffs and touches the ring with his pinky. “He was genuine.”

The lighter clicks as Ten takes a drag. He rubs his nose with the cigarette pinched between his fingers and listens to _Claire de Lune_ ’s soothing melody playing from the living room. 

“Is that true, or is that what you wanted to believe?”

“No idea,” Jaehyun whispers. “What happens to him now?”

“He repents, hopefully,” Ten muses. “Yuta’s not pressing charges, but he will use it to blackmail him, I think. I’m not really curious, to be honest. Main thing is we’re safe now.”

Jaehyun nods a few times, eyes squinted as he watches Vegas explode with its glory on the horizon. He was happy in this city once. He loved this desert. He found his heart in it.

“Send my cut to my bank in Canada,” he resolutes, standing up — and it’s the old Jaehyun again, collected and cool.

“Johnny only deals with cash. He’s fencing the spoils.”

“Well, then, I’ll get it when I see you next.”

He turns to leave, but Ten stops him by the elbow. “The wedding is in the month. Are you coming?”

“Sure.” He squeezes Ten’s finger, the only gratitude he can manage to produce right now. “I just need to do something first.”

Ten props against the railing and watches him sneak out of the house unnoticed, hoping that this time around, whatever choice Jaehyun makes — he doesn’t regret it. 

Taeyong joins him a minute later, catching his lips in a heated kiss that always follows a successful heist. Ten bites his lip playfully.

“Do you feel guilty?” Taeyong whispers, putting their foreheads together.

“No.” He sighs and palms Taeyong’s neck. “But I love that you do.”

“I just think…”

“That he deserved it,” Ten says firmly. “We could play it so much worse, and I even had backup plans for that, but we chose to make it easy on him. And I don’t regret it.”

Taeyong shakes his head and kisses his cheek. “You’re too honorable for a criminal.”

“Hey, _you’re_ the one marrying me.”

//

Johnny dabs Mark’s cheek with a cloth and blows on the cut, cooing at how Mark scrunches up his nose. 

“Want me to kiss it better?”

“Yes please.”

He hums under his breath as he presses his lips to the scratch, finding Mark’s fingers and then kissing them too. Mark watches him with those damn huge eyes of his as shiny as they’ve ever been, and Johnny reflects on how it never fails to take his breath away. His feelings for Mark, in general, tend to never get old.

“I thought the fight was pretend,” he whispers against Mark’s cheekbone.

“The fight was,” Mark murmurs grumpily. “The pole I tripped on was real. I fell on my face.”

Johnny laughs heartily, circling Mark’s body with his arms and pressing him close so strongly Mark chokes up a little. 

“I fucking love you, dumbass,” Johnny whispers heatedly, unable to contain it. “Never change.”

It sounds simple and natural, but there’s something dark and scary lurking behind his ribs, something that gained life as he watched the hopeless tragedy of Jaehyun and Taeil play out before him. His Mark, for all his shyness and quietness, is perceptive, so he raises his chin and kisses Johnny firmly.

“I won’t,” he mutters, pressing his fingers into Johnny’s sides as a sign of comfort. “I promise.”

And Johnny believes him.

//

For some reason, Hoseok is already ordained, and so he volunteers to officiate the ceremony. It plays well into the whole ‘no outsiders’ thing and makes him happy, so they agree instantly.

The wedding goes smoothly and is filled with laughter, but later, the only thing Ten will be able to recall is the radiant, shining, glowing face of his twice-husband across from him as he says a simple yet fundamental _Yes_. His lips taste as sweet as they did seventeen years ago when they shared their first kiss. 

Ten’s made a lot of choices in his life, walked down many paths, turned many corners. Some of them were good, some bad, some brought him pain and some — loss, and maybe, he regrets some of those, but It doesn’t matter. Really, it doesn’t. 

But the thing that matters is that he would make the same ones all over again, given a chance, for they’ve brought him here, to this altar, to this man, to these people around them.

Everybody is here, their friends and family, a colorful crowd with a hundred possible felonies to their names, and it’s not an ideal movie-perfect situation, but it’s the best thing that could ever happen to Ten. He would never guess that he would arrive at this point, for his childhood was grim and promising a lonely existence full of loss and pain.

And then he saw a boy on the playground and shared his toys with him. 

The rest, as they say, is history.

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah. I'm so sorry please jaehyun I'm so sorry aslkjdl y'all have no idea how many times I called myself a monster while writing this. jaeil relationship is overall sooo interesting, and one day I will probably write a prequel to this monster to explore that one.  
> honestly, I have no excuse for this absolutely self-indulgent thing that I wrote mostly for my taeten-johnmark loving ass that wanted some softness because both of their relationships in my other fic (ets) are just...not at the best point rn lol
> 
> anyway, I hope you enjoyed this! btn universe is one of my favorites, because it was one of the first things that I wrote in English and what brought me back into writing, and I'll forever stay grateful to it. I hope you enjoyed it at least a little bit, and we'll be probably seeing you again, because there is too much shit I still have to tell about these people's past and future. thank you and until the next time :3
> 
> [carrd](https://onefortheroad.carrd.co/) // twt is closed for me these days so come talk to me on [insta](https://www.instagram.com/romulusadhara/) or [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/romulusadhara)


End file.
